Charmany Dairy Herd Newsletter April 1 st April 7 th Daily Events

Transcription

1 Daily Events Monday: Tuesday: Am 4 th year Theriogenology rotation Herd Check Dr. Bosu, 4 th yr. students, and Pam Draheim, whose student project is the management of the herd s OVSYNCH program 6:30am - 8am: Tail bleeding for blood for Dr. Czuprynski s lab PMII will be flaming udders and checking the milking system The cows in the herd will be bled by students for Dr. Schultz to follow up their vaccination for BVD, PI3, BRSV, IBR, and Lepto 3 weeks ago. Wednesday: 6:30am-8am: LAIM student will bleed a cow for Dr. Czuprynski s lab Rachel Klos will be bleeding cows and processing their blood for NEFA s and BHB s Thursday: Friday: rbst injections given to 24 cows during milking 5 am 7 am Management meeting 7:30 am in building 662 at Charmany

2 Weekly Events Cows due to calve: The next cows to calve are: Polly ; Kristyn-4/3/02; Gertie-4/7/02; and Matti-4/13/02. Then we get a break as Swoosh, who is dry (can that be true?), will calve on 6/6/02. Sorry Judith!!! Production and Milk Quality Summary: Every-day pickup for milk continues since Saturday 11/17/01, and the herd is milking 42 out of 46 cows. We are still averaging close to 83 lbs. per cow per day. Check THIS out!!! The Foremost Farm report for March indicated that our average SCC is 177,000 cells /ml during the second half of the month, which assists us in getting an average $2 premium per hundred lbs of milk. Our average butterfat is 3.6 %, which means our milk is worth more per unit than the 3.5% standard. Our protein is 3.1% on average, which makes our milk very nutritious!! The herd rolling herd average (RHA) is 25,118 lbs. per cow (a year ago the herd RHA was 23,073 lbs. per cow) and is on course to ship > 110,000 lbs. of milk to Foremost in March, which is a 77 lb. per stall average. The herd continues to be the 29 th best herd in the county (out of 230) and will move up next month especially after the name change from Tom Bennett to the UW SVM Teaching Herd! Remember most of the herds above us are either 3x per day milking or are fed a total mixed ration (TMR)!!! Great job students! Sick Cows/Treatments/Breedings/Patient Care: As with most innovative projects, you have your good weeks and your bad weeks -- this last week was one of our good weeks. But first a report on Polly. We have decided to cull her because of her multiple problems: 6 years old, pendulous udder, compromised feet and legs, non-responsive mastitis in the LR caused by E. coli, and a SCC of greater then 3 million. Furthermore, we need a stall for our dry cows that are going to calve. This decision will also allow us to: (1) keep Diane and watch her potential pregnancy; (2) keep Kathy in the barn, giving us more time to dry her up and avoid leaking problems in the dry cow barn; (3) keep Swoosh milking longer; (4) keep April and Katrina in the milking barn longer as they will calve in November but are giving levels of milk which should put them in the dry pen; and (5) give Trish (Pearl s daughter) one more chance to get pregnant. Next the report on Sparkle. Her general condition continues to improve; however, her RF quarter is still extremely inflamed and not producing anything resembling milk. Her most recent culture was negative for bacteria on her RR, LF, and LR while her RF culture revealed 10,000 CFU of E. coli, which is sensitive to all antibiotics. Unfortunately, the SCC on her RR, LF, and LR is over 3 million, so we continue to milk her into the bucket. We speculate that this E. coli had the ability to produce a high level of toxins (based on the damage to mammary tissue, the SCC, and character of the milk) even though the levels of bacteria and its antibiotic sensitivity certainly do not indicate that the bacteria should have caused this much trouble for Sparkle. Our plan for Sparkle is to (1) milk her as a 3-teater (she is producing about 55lbs per day now on 3 quarters) once her SCC goes down to a level compatible with the herd SCC; (2) dry up the RF quarter; and (3) get her pregnant as soon as possible and then dry her up early. Hopefully the quarter can regenerate to some level in the next lactation. Other successes in the herd give us some optimism that this might work. Three such examples: Tootsie (she had Klebsiella in 3 quarters when she was dried up early), Kristyn and Anna (who were 3 quartered cows in their last lactation), and Brit, who milked almost 100 lbs on 3 quarters. Then there is Annabelle, who actually had bacteria in all 4 quarters (including Enterobacter to Coagulase Negative Staph) and whose milk is now going into the tank at close to 100lbs. What a great illustration that the Host-Agent relationships in mastitis are difficult to predict based on laboratory work. We have lowered her trainer as low as it will go and hopefully this will discourage her from defecating in her stall keep the manure from being placed at the left side of her udder each day.

3 Weekly Events Now for the good news! Char and Ace are pregnant, and Gertie and Matti are in the barn early enough to have a transition to a milking state. Dr. Cook treated Sandy, Ace, and Kristyn for our stanchion disease - - heel cracks plus subsequent infection. Tootsie only had a Coagulase Negative Staph mastitis (thank you Faye Hartmann!), and Swish is finally not bellowing because she is not near her mother (whose says they don t know their own mother?). Dave came up with yet another novel idea for cows that have figured out how to get around their trainers (such as Brenda) -- 2 trainers over their stalls. We went back to 3 inches of bedding and the cows are much cleaner. So you see, some weeks are just full of positive happenings!! What did we learn last week? I guess that there is no way you can teach heat stress and its effects unless you live through it. Care for a few examples? Putting Tootsie in AC to save her life when her temp was nearing 108 degrees (average temp of cows in the barn that first night degrees with 100 % humidity -- was degrees, with 8 cows over 107 degrees); Spraying down the cows every night outside for at least 1.5 hrs; Experiencing the herd s average production going down to 58lbs. per day; Getting no cows pregnant for several weeks, then 1 every two weeks and finally back up to 8 out of 9 cows in one week in late February; Culling Serenna and Sweetlou because of associated pneumonia; Having a level of environmental mastitis in Aug/Sept not experienced before because of the additional high humidity; Having to dry cows up any where from 6-8 months early because of delayed conception; Having a higher-than-normal level of laminitis, which was kept to a minimum because of good foot care by Dr. Cook and Karl Burgi. I guess there is no substitute for on-the-job experience! Lameness assessments: Eve and Matti are calling for Dr. Cook s expertise as they have developed some heel cracks and interdigital dermatitis. Now if only we had that chute. Noteworthy items: The 3 rd year students who have worked regularly in the barn will be honored at the April 19 th student meeting. Red has decided to give an award for the 1 student who exhibited the most responsibility, commitment, and leadership in the barn. This will be done by hoof ballot at feeding time. The rest of these fine students will receive mementoes that will always remind them of the herd and its contributions to their educational/life/career as they are becoming true veterinarians in their 4 TH year. This may even encourage them to visit, as we know that the discussion at the bunk will be on how much they are missed. Projects: We give our rbst injections on Friday mornings. If you want to give us a hand (as their can be up to 24 cows to inject) feel free to show up any time between 6:00-7:30am. Come and give Keith Poulsen and Shannon Lacy a hand. We have cows to vaccinate (J-5 and Scourgard) see Erika Langfoss and Ayrika White for the schedule. We are looking for someone to do the Newsletter next fall as Jessica is retiring! And at such a young age.

4 Weekly Events Employment opportunities: If you are interested in gaining experience with dairy cows, we have the opportunity for you. You can join the milking crew at the Charmany Teaching Facility and work the AM or PM milking shifts. Weekday shifts are from 5:00 am to 7:00 am and from 4:30 pm top 8:30 pm. Weekend shifts are from 5:00 am to 12:00 pm and from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Interested students should contact Dr. Bill Goodger at Dr. Goodger is beginning to set up the summer work schedule. Please contact him if you wish to be included, as available shifts will fill up fast! You can contact Dr. Goodger at the address below he can respond almost immediately as his newest toy (a Blackberry) allows him to check almost anywhere at anytime. (Hopefully not while he s driving, though!) If you need to contact someone at the UW-SVM Charmany Teaching Herd Barn, call (608) Please direct correspondence regarding the Charmany Teaching Herd or the newsletter to: Head Reporter for : William J. Goodger, DVM, PhD Cellular wgoodger@facstaff.wisc.edu Newsletter Editor : Jessica Pagenkopf, jmpagenk@students.wisc.edu Data, photos, and online newsletter posting: Tom Bennett, Food Animal Production Medicine tbbennet@facstaff.wisc.edu

5 SPECIAL FEATURES SECTION Meet this week s featured cow Susan, and this week s featured Charmany Teaching Herd Caretaker, Judith Goelkel! Susan (Test Data from 2/26/02) Breed: Holstein Age: 3 years 3 months Lactation: 2 Days In Milk (DIM): 143 Somatic Cell Count (SCC): 13 Average Number of Pounds per Day: 117 Total Pounds Produced this Lactation: 15,880 Lifetime Production Total: 38,330 Reproductive Status: Pregnant Judith Goelkel Class: 2003 When Judith began working with the herd: Fall 2001 with no prior dairy farm experience. Why Judith took a job with the herd: To get experience with dairy cows, especially around calving time. The best part of Judith s job: Being around the cows during calving, assisting with the calving, and feeding the calves. How Judith s job enhances her veterinary medical education: I have treated 2 milk fevers with the assistance of Dr. Momont. The next one I treated by myself! I never thought that I would be able to do that! Skills Judith has learned or improved while working with the herd: All skills associated with milking a cow. I had no experience dealing with cows, and I now feel very comfortable around them.

6 Judith s Favorite Cow: I like Red very much! She appreciates every bit of food you give her. She also likes personal attention very much! Judith s career interests: My primary interest is in Equine Medicine, but since working at Charmany my interests have started to include Bovine Medicine as well. Theriogenology is also very high on my list. Judith s recommendations to other students: I would definitely recommend this job to other students. I have gained so much appreciation for dairy cows. Pictured at Right: Judith is the resident Baby Monitor and Midwife at Charmany. She likes assisting with calving so much that she frequently stops at the barn after classes or in the evenings to check on our expectant mothers in the herd. How s that for dedication?